Im saying heres the situation, tell me what to do.. Yeah, its more please give your overall thoughts or opinions on this matter versus a specific question. Do the needful was a British expression for doing whats necessary that was very popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. i think if aam has taught me anything, its that you can never be 100% sure of anything when it comes to interacting with other people. I advise that the order is held and you request an investigation. Ive worked in three different offices, and this phrase was used by nobody at two of them, and then by virtually everybody at the third one. Im not religious and Im certainly not a Scientologist but the one thing they got right is that they insist that people know what a word means. I know you wrote this years ago but a google search for ITP and Mthfr gene brought this up. To me the please advise when done or words to that effect; suggest to me they are implying I dont have the manners or common sense to respond with their results or let them know when tasks are complete; when its an absolute pre requisite that I will reply with the answer or information they want. Im more likely to say, Please let me know your thoughts.. When I see it, I interpret it as, I dont expect you to have any objections or questions to this, so the next thing I should be sending you is my thanks to you for letting me know its done, and Im just going to get that out of the way right now. I make allowances in my head for the possibility that the sender doesnt actually mean that, but I always give a little mental grrr when I see it. } So Id let this one go. Man, I cant stand when people use please advise but it is a lot more tolerable if they clearly state in the message specifically what action they want me to take. If it sounds normal and polite out loud, I think its fine to use in an email. Every once in a while you might still get an erroneous email from one of the approved senders, but then idiots in the batch of 1000 people who got the original email cant hit reply all with a snarky or pointless reply. Thats the way I use it too. I would like to give some of that advice to the current staff that I manage. Quick and gentle fall into the same category for me, with gentle being more annoying but quick also being annoying. is this FYI, or is there a question or task buried somewhere in here for me?. . What time shall we say? Please let me know vs Please tell me. The How do I save a word file is not a literal question thats happened, but very close. :). My screen said zero comments when I posted that. Then again, I fire up the imaginary laser vision whenever people use In Regards to instead of In regard to or even better regarding. So I guess everyone has pet peeves. I generally think thats a fair assessment by the writer, so maybe thats why it rarely annoys me. See a translation 1 like Highly-rated answerer Yom 17 Jul 2017 Korean @OldGeezer Thank you for your help! If everything else from you is important, then to me its equally as non-important. Ok, this is hilarious, because I used to this way today! Have you booked that hotel I only asked you about on the phone 30 seconds ago? Im still waiting for the Veeblefetzer Report, Please send it to me ASAP.. versus Could you at least answer me so I know the Chicago office has not been wiped out in a zombie apocalypse or other natural disaster? would not have gone over well. It was at that point I realised, it is not my explaining that is the problem here. 2nd Option: Be the nerdy student who becomes the school dux, while getting a raw 50 in English . And from people who should have known better than to reply all! Certainly, sometimes you have a new employee, a weird problem, etc. ", Quick and smart, plus is "human-based"! So I just describe the situation as briefly and clearly as I can and say something like please advise or Id appreciate your thoughts on this or Id really appreciate your help (leaving with the above nightmare unstated!). you are reacting to i require when its being used as i need. Copyright 2007 - 2023 Ask A Manager. and it drives me insane. Its work. I really think it depends on company culture. I think I agree with the letter writer on this one. Answer (1 of 20): "Let me know where you're at" "Keep me apprised" "Keep me in the loop" "Keep me informed" "Keep me updated" "Advise me when" "Tell me when something changes" To name a few I learned of the phrase after listening to some fiction audiobooks set in India. Okay. ), Much more annoying are cold callers from my bank or the internet supplier who finish up with Can I help you with anything else today? Grr. My last supervisor would copy me on everything, and most times the emails didnt have a question directly related to me so I wouldnt respond. Not a fan. I suspect part of the reason for our culture being this way is that we have a fairly open floorplan, so if we were to routinely talk at our desks, it would be disruptive. How about Friendly reminder? Our supplier says it is now y. Personally, I tend to say something like Let me know, thanks! or Can you please let me know? when indicating I need a response and Im not ending with an obvious question. I sign my emails with Regards all the time. Comment: Do not leave your belongings at the front desk. At other jobs you wouldve gotten some serious side-eye for that phrase. Please advise, like a lot of things, is one of those generic polite statements that can become really snarky depending on the context and the person using it. He wasnt wrong. I guess I always thought of it as similar to Thanks for reading this e-mail or something. Heres an example: 1. I was shocked. Then the person I speak with asks why not just do C? I use Please Advise as a last ditch effort to obtain a response from a decision maker in my companys corporate office. I then give background on my question. Could this be confirmed either way to help my order progress please? !1997 F350 XLT 4x4 Crew Cab (4 door) 7.3 Liter V-8 Diesel Powerstroke, Automatic with overdrive, Dana 60 front axle, Weld Racing Wheels and Toyo Open Country Radials (tires and wheels cost $4500) only 66,000 original miles Located in Seattle Washington 98188 1 mile from Seatac AirportI . In which case the Please advise is their action item. I dont think I would even know what that meant. I agree that benefit of the doubt is important when reading emails just because tone can be hard to convey correctly sometimes, but it seems like an oxymoron to say dont read into tone that isnt there when you have no way to know what the tone is supposed to be aside from what you can grasp by the words the sender used. Just this morning I had to send out a second reminder to someone about turning in something that should have been turned in two weeks ago. Do you want to build a SNOWMAN?. Its so delightfully vague! No. Make sure you specify your time zone (people will assume they are in your timezone) The busier the . Although to be honest, if Im sending my boss an FYI email I usually indicate that. I think please advise is okay when youre asking a question going up the ladder, but coming from a manager to a subordinate it does usually come off as, please advise WTF you were thinking when you did this., Yeah, since someone above you is unlikely to actually want anything that could be called advice from you haha. That would make me investigate accordingly and resolve as applicable and reply with details of any action taken. Thats what I envisioned, too, because its what I see. On the please advise thing. Therefore, if I want to call someone, I ping them on IM first and then ask if its a convenient time to call. s.src = "https://cdn.iubenda.com/iubenda.js"; I was already going to do the needful. It does havea slightly more formal feel to it than I prefer, but its not like the horrid and condescending gentle reminder.. In the end, because she was unable to understand the issue I went to speak to the owner of the business, who immediately sent out an email clarifying the parking procedure. Which is a lot, because I think its a super useful phrase. I was thinking this too. Their natural automatic understanding of the words is just different from what the speaker wanted to make understood. Ive been tempted). Almost nothing makes me grind my teeth more. Thats how I use it too. OP, Alison gave some pretty solid advice here. Are you available/free on Friday, let's say** 9 a.m.? I agree that using it the opposite way irritates. Yeah, its annoying to me for that reason, too. The formality reflects my work environment. I used to work with someone who always put clear as mud? at the end of emails that were, in fact, quite clear. Putting please advise instead of the second sentence would incline me to respond with something like. To me, it means You have more knowledge about this thing than I do. Lots of possible transfers options for GW23. Heres the cluster fudge thats happening. s.src = "https://cdn.iubenda.com/iubenda.js"; I think rocky relationships with colleagues and/or managers can have someone interpret all correspondence with some level of snark, condescending, shouting, bossy etc in tone even if it is genuinely not the case. Did you get the memo? So I dont always like assuming there are a limited number of solutions. But that whole make sense? stuff irked me. I usually use Can I help the next person?, I thought it was the sentiment you had a problem with and was very confused. Please let me know. A complete search of the internet has found these results: Please let me know which one you preferis the most popular phrase on the web. To me, please advise means please write back something. please give me your knowledge so I can stop feeling stupid. This means that you can drop the adverb "please" and simply use "let me know if you need any help" instead. Sometimes I have no idea how else to end an email that indicates that I need an answer and whatever Im doing cant move forward without it. (I am a webmaster for many sites at my University, and a lot of times people from a department want me to do something to their site that is in conflict with ADA compliance/branding initiative/common sense, so if they dont take no for an answer when I explain why we cant do it that way, I bring in another person of influence, like my boss or someone in charge of university-level site compliance, or the persons own department chair, etc., and then explain the request, the problem with the request, and explain that Im trying to resolve the matter. This years ago but a google search for ITP and Mthfr gene this! Being annoying to obtain a response from a decision maker in my companys corporate office was at point. Nerdy student who becomes the school dux, while getting a raw in... 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